With some 175,000 inhabitants, Mülheim an der Ruhr is among the smaller cities in the Rhein-Ruhr-Area. Its public transport system is closely linked to the neighbouring cities of Essen, Duisburg and Oberhausen. Construction of a Stadtbahn network started in Essen/Mülheim in the early 1960's and included regauging of many Essen tram routes from former 1000 mm to standard 1435 mm and the construction of underground sections. After the first 600 m tunnel opened in Essen in 1967 along Huysenallee with one station, Saalbau (now Philharmonie/Saalbau), in the early 1970's a Stadtbahn network was planned for the whole Rhein-Ruhr area and the fast tram link between Essen and Mülheim was chosen as the first to be upgraded. It opened in 1977, partly underground and partly on the surface in the middle strip of the A40 motorway. Subsequently a small underground network was realised.

STADTBAHN

U18 can be considered a real metro line as it runs independent from road traffic along its full length. On Mülheim territory (5.5 km) it is partly underground with some open sections due to topographical conditions between Von-Bock-Str. and Christianstraße. The route to Essen east of Eichbaum station runs in the middle strip of the A40 motorway. At the western terminus at Mülheim Hauptbahnhof there is no track link to the standard-gauge tram line 901. Line U18 is operated jointly by the MVG and Essen EVAG with DUEWAG Stadtbahn B-cars or ex-DLR cars.

TRAM

Besides the Stadtbahn tunnel, Mülheim also boasts a tram tunnel (1998) with four underground stations. The tram tunnel has 4-rail tracks from its western portal and Mülheim Hauptbahnhof, as it is used by meter-gauge line 102 and the Duisburg standard gauge line 901.

- tram network length approx. 32 km
- 3 lines operated by MVG (102, 104, 110), line 112 is operated jointly with Oberhausen's STOAG, and line 901 is operated by Duisburg's DVG.
- 1000 mm gauge, except line 901 (1435 mm)
- rolling stock: DUEWAG M6D (some with low-floor middle section, 1976-92); MGT6D (low-floor, 1995-96)

28-05-1977 - U18 Essen city boundary - Heißen Kirche (2.7 km)
03-11-1979 - U18 Heißen Kirche - Mülheim Hauptbahnhof (2.8 km)
27-04-1985 - Mülheim Hauptbahnhof - Aktienstraße - ramp (1.5 km)
19-09-1998 - Mülheim Hauptbahnhof - Schloss Broich (2 km)

 Projects

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Stadtbahn line U18 starts operating between 4:00 and 5:00 and runs until around midnight, every 10 minutes during daytime and every 20-30 minutes early morning and evening, Saturday afternoon and Sundays every 15 minutes daytime.

See fares on Rhein-Ruhr page

MVG (Mülheimer Verkehrsgesellschaft)

VRR (Tariff System Rhein-Ruhr) incl. maps and timetables

MVG at Wikipedia.de

Trambilderbuch incl. many photos

Straßenbahn in Mülheim an der Ruhr by Horst Spieker

Schwandl, Robert: Schnellbahnen in Deutschland / Metros in Germany. U-Bahn - Stadtbahn - S-Bahn. - April 2007, Berlin, ISBN 978 3 836573 18 3

- Anything you want to know about German metro and light rail systems, with detailed maps and hundreds of colour photos; 192 pages; Text German and English - More details